Talk about blowing things out of proportion. Look at how many players Harry Redknapp "benched" for Tottenham's last Europa League game. He's played a lot of football on two continents recently. Give him a game off or two to recharge the batteries. It's a long season. AZ will compete for multiple trophies. Everyone relax

After a hot start in his first season in the Netherlands, it appears that Jozy Altidore is going to have to fight for his place in AZ Alkmaar's starting lineup. According to reports out of the Netherlands, AZ manager Gertjan Verbeek has elected to bench Altidore ahead of Thursday's UEFA Euro...

Eight members of the Mexican national team set to play in Copa America have been sent home after a scandal involving the players bringing prostitutes to their hotel rooms. The eight players, one of which was Barcelona defender Jonathan Dos Santos, were accused of bringing prostitutes into th...

Eight members of the Mexican national team set to play in Copa America have been sent home after a scandal involving the players bringing prostitutes to their hotel rooms. The eight players, one of which was Barcelona defender Jonathan Dos Santos, were accused of bringing prostitutes into th...

When Teal Bunbury scored his first goal for the U.S. national team in January, it seemed like it would be the first of many national team goals for the Sporting Kansas City striker. Unfortunately for the U.S. national team, any more international goals Bunbury scores won't be for the United ...

I lined my bench with rookies (Valentin, Soares, Sarkodie and Bruin). Figure they're cost-effective back ups and one is bound to have a breakout season.
How do you feel about starting Bruin this week, considering Ching is out? My other forward options are Braun, Saborio and Cummings.

By AVI CREDITOR Call it a glitch, call it a technicality, but it's Week 2 in MFLS circles. Week 1 (AKA Los Angeles' 1-0 win over Seattle) was pretty fruitless from a fantasy standpoint unless you started Juninho, who scored the only goal, or had the foresight to go with Josh Saunders as your ...

Photo by Jose M. Romero By JOSE M. ROMERO GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Maybe now, with 11 days left until the MLS regular season opener against the Seattle Sounders, wasn't the time for the New York Red Bulls to be tinkering with their lineup. Coach Hans Backe had to do so, however, out of necessity Tu...

Photo by Jose M. Romero By JOSE M. ROMERO GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Maybe now, with 11 days left until the MLS regular season opener against the Seattle Sounders, wasn't the time for the New York Red Bulls to be tinkering with their lineup. Coach Hans Backe had to do so, however, out of necessity Tu...

Solli is the playmaker. If he and Agudelo are healthy for opening night I think we'll see Tainio at right back, Tchani at the base of the diamond with Solli in front of him, Dane on the right wing and Agudelo up top with Titi.

Photo by Jose M. Romero By JOSE M. ROMERO GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Maybe now, with 11 days left until the MLS regular season opener against the Seattle Sounders, wasn't the time for the New York Red Bulls to be tinkering with their lineup. Coach Hans Backe had to do so, however, out of necessity Tu...

Remember when Freddy Adu could use his quickness and shifty moves to score impressive goals? It might seem like ages ago, and for some, you may not even remember, but the diminutive midfielder has scored some good goals in his career. Adu flashed that old goal-scoring touch today, netting a pret...

I'd take Irving Garcia. Kid showed flashes last year when he got a chance, particularly in the Juve game. Has some speed, some skill and hits a decent cross. Conor Chinn could be a guy who picks up some garbage goals. He had a great strike rate when he got on the field last year. However, his link-up play is awful.

Photo by ISIphotos.com If the expansion, re-entry, Super and supplemental drafts weren't enough for you, Major League Soccer has one more player draft before the 2011 season begins. As of Tuesday's roster compliance deadline, 22 players around the league were released by their teams and will b...

After 16 years of supporting this club, last year I finally felt like we were in the hands of folks who knew what they were doing. Thanks to Erik Stover, we'd moved out of Giants Stadium and into the best facility in American soccer. Soler added depth and quality to the worst squad in MLS history, highlighted by the pick-up of Joel Lindpere. Hans Backe had given the squad a bit of confidence and swagger and had them playing attractive, inspired soccer. A worst to first transition was more than we could have hoped for in their first year.
Red Bull fans have never gone into a season with the level of expectation that we have now. Sure, Angel was jettisoned. Two DPs playing up front couldn't work, especially considering Angel never had the pace that Hans desires up top. Still, losing the club's best ever player stung.
Now this. We lose two coaches who had served the clubs through good times and bad. Des had morphed an athletic enigma named Bouna Condoul into one of the top goalkeepers in MLS, someone capable of stealing three points as he did against Kansas City late in the year.
Richie is a local guy, who did an admirable job as the club's interim coach and had every right to feel hard done by when he wasn't offered the gig full time. He didn't sulk. He joined Hans' staff. He was the architect of perhaps the greatest draft class in MLS history, providing the club with two starters this year. With the 18th pick he landed a centerback who should be starting for the US at the Gold Cup this summer.
The fact that these moves were made less than three weeks before the start of the season is a bizarre. There has to be more to this story. I can't imagine Hans would leave himself with only one assistant coach less than 20 days before the season kicks off. I'm sure details will emerge in the coming days that will allow Red Bull fans to make more sense of this move. However, this story gave me a very skeptical feeling for the first time this winter.

Photo by ISIPhotos.com New York Red Bulls assistant coaches Richie Williams and Des McAleenan, who have served a combined 15 seasons as coaches for New York, have been fired. The Washington Post reported on Monday afternoon that the two assistants were let go for what sources were calling "re...

Stuart Holden strikes a ball as well as anyone in the national team pool right now, including Landon. Watching him play for Bolton this year, you see a player who wants the ball all the time. He has such confidence in himself right now, which is incredibly important for a penalty taker. I've always been a fan of the philosophy of giving penalties to players who want to take them. Confidence is more than half the battle. The rest is striking the ball on target and getting lucky with the goalkeeper not guessing the right way.

The United States national team is in desperate need of a goal in the waning minutes. After a foul in the area, the referee points to the spot. Penalty! One problem. For whatever reason, Landon Donovan isn't on the matchday roster. Somebody else has to step up and take the kick. In light of Cl...

Clearly if CD9 is his "old self" he's going to the Gold Cup. His "old self" was the best center forward in the national team pool. The real question is can CD9 return to his pre-accident form? That's a question that is best answered by medical professionals.

Good afternoon folks. While Live Q&As have become the standard on SBI in recent months I am also aware that not everybody can make it to our Live Q&A sessions so every once in a while I will bring back the old school SBI Q&A format. Send in your soccer (and pop culture) questions and I will a...

Good afternoon folks. While Live Q&As have become the standard on SBI in recent months I am also aware that not everybody can make it to our Live Q&A sessions so every once in a while I will bring back the old school SBI Q&A format. Send in your soccer (and pop culture) questions and I will a...

Good afternoon folks. While Live Q&As have become the standard on SBI in recent months I am also aware that not everybody can make it to our Live Q&A sessions so every once in a while I will bring back the old school SBI Q&A format. Send in your soccer (and pop culture) questions and I will a...

Horrendous? He went in with one foot and played the ball. Even Wenger the cry baby who is trying to legislate tackling out of the game didn't complain about it as much as you just did. If you've got a problem with the beautiful game being played physically, baseball starts soon. It's slow, boring and nobody ever gets hurt.

The first U.S. national team match of the year won't feature many familiar faces. In fact, there are no players who could be considered first-choice national team options. No, Saturday's friendly against Chile is instead about new faces and Bob Bradley's chance to see how a new crop of MLS p...